One of the things that for me justifies an occasional revival of older music - more homage than influence - is the continued advance of technology. There is a ton of music being produced right now that was clearly intended to sound like it came straight out of 1983, but whereas 80's synth music benefitted from great studio production (under ideal, big budget circumstances anyway) it was always hampered by shitty, first or second generation keyboards. In spite of that, artists like John Foxx, Gary Numan and a host of unheralded new wave groups proved that what was at the time new technology could produce entirely new styles of pop music that were far more than just guitar pop transposed for MIDI.
Active Child are one of those homage bands, but in 2011 you not only have the option of cutting edge production regardless of your budget, but with advances in software it really doesn't matter if you have a shitty keyboard anymore. "Diamond Heart" isn't so much reinventing the wheel as celebrating what it's given us as a cultural entity.
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